Supergirl and the chimaera warrior
by iriqi1
Summary: The worldkillers are no more, but does the arrival of a warrior from another world herald the arrival of a new and even more powerful threat?
1. the arrival

"Don't move! Put your hands behind your head now!"

I looked around and saw that I had been surrounded but I knew that they were all human so I wasn't worried about them actually being able to hurt me, at least, I wasn't until I got hit hard by someone that had just flown in through the open window behind me.

"At last, a challenge."

As soon as I saw who had hit me, I realised exactly where and when I was.

"You're the one they call Supergirl, right?"

"How do you not know who I am?"

"Before I answer that, I have one simple question. What earth am I on?"

"Wait a minute, you're from another reality? Why are you here?"

I thought for a moment before deciding I had nothing to lose by being honest with them, they may even be able to help me get home.

"I was sent to another earth to aid them with a powerful being that had fled there from my home and started trying to take over, they attempted to send me back to my reality after he had been defeated but for some reason, I ended up here instead. When this has happened in the past, it was always because I was needed for some reason, like a powerful threat that the people would be unable to deal with on their own or possibly for some other reason."

I could see that they were worried when I mentioned the possibility of a powerful threat but I was quick to reassure them.

"I may not know yet why I am here, but if I am here and there is a threat, then I am confident that we will be able to defeat it if we work together."

A few moments later another alien flew in through the window and landed in front of me.

"Is this the new arrival?"

"You are martian, I assume you were called to probe my mind to see if I was telling the truth about who I am and why I am here?"

"Indeed, you are not offended by this?"

I laughed for a moment before responding.

"Of course not, it is only sensible for me to prove that I am telling you the truth and that I am no threat. I will lower my shields and you may see what you think, I would ask that you not look into my childhood though, I experience everything that a psychic sees and I do not wish to go through those memories again."

"Very well, simply focus on the true reason for your last mission and the truth of what you told them and that will be all I will need to see to tell whether or not you are telling the truth."

"Very well, I sense that I can trust you, so you may enter my mind and search to your hearts content."

I don't know how long he searched through my memories for but when I returned to the real world it was still quite bright outside so it couldn't have been long.

"He speaks the truth, his people seem to have been created as protectors, though there are some that have gone against their creators and seek to control, rather than protect, he is one of those that is sent to stop them when they appear."

"But how can he stop them? If they are that powerful that we would need help to beat them and I took him down with one shot, he can't be that strong."

I looked over to supergirl and smiled.

"The only reason you landed that hit on me was that I was distracted, if we were in battle, that would not happen and you would most likely be defeated already."

I could see that she doubted that so I decided to try and see what she was truly capable of.

"I can see that you don't believe me, is there an out of the way area we can use for a little sparring? Preferably several miles away from any people or towns, less chance of damage that way."

"Very well, we will meet you outside the city at this location, we have used it before for her training so we sealed off the whole area and marked it as a test site so no-one else goes there."

As he spoke he showed me a map and told me how to get there and once he had finished I headed over to the window he had used to enter and changed into a form I knew could travel there faster than the human eye could follow and flew out of the window, laughing to myself when I heard the surprise of the people in the building I had just left. When I arrived at the place that they had told me to head for, I saw that none of them had arrived yet so I found a flat rock and sat down to wait for them.

When they arrived they seemed surprised that I had got there first and asked what I had changed in to as I left.

"Well, it's a creature from my home-world, we call it a shadowhawk, it seemed the best form to use since only a few people would have been able to see it once I got in the air. I figured it would be best if I remained unseen as much as possible, just in case whatever I am here to stop saw me and realised what I was."

"A sensible precaution."

"Yes I thought so too. Well then kara, shall we begin or do you need time to prepare yourself?"

a few moments later she said she was ready and stood a short distance from me.

"Before we begin, the rules. All powers are permitted except for flight, I want to see how you fight on the ground first, perhaps next time an aerial duel could be arranged."

as she took up a position i removed most of my armour and set my weapons to one side before preparing myself for the challenge ahead.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- have we met before?

"Well, are we going to fight or not?"

A moment later I could see her eyes starting to glow and I knew exactly what I needed to do to defeat her but I wouldn't have learnt anything about her if I did so I simply stood there and raised a shield to take the blast from her heat vision and launched a blast of my own not at her, but at the ground around her before reaching out with my powers and shaping the earth around me into a form I hoped would be able to hold her long enough for my plan to work.

As soon as the arms of the creature I had created reached out and pulled her down to the ground I shifted into the form of one of the most dangerous creatures I had encountered on my travels through the multiverse. When the change was complete I heard more than a few gasps from the surrounding audience and even a few screams, not that I blame them, it's not everyday that a demon appears in front of you.

"No matter what form you use, I won't give up or go easy on you!"

"That's good Kara, I'd be disappointed if you did. Hit me with your best shot!"

A few moments later I staggered backwards a few steps as I was hit with a punch strong enough to level a small mountain and knowing that she could take the hit, sent one back at least as hard which sent her flying backwards into a nearby lake.

As she pulled herself out of the water onto the shore, she started spinning rapidly in order to dry herself off before charging straight at me. Just as she reached me, I used another one of my abilities to sink rapidly into the ground before reaching back up and pulling her in after me.

As soon as she forced her way to the surface she turned to me and looked like she was searching for something.

"This might sound kind of weird, but have we met before, I remember someone I used to play with when I was younger doing exactly what you just did to a bully back home."

"Well, it is possible, I was raised in this reality and we were not living on earth. What planet did you grow up on?"

"A planet called krypton, in a place called Argo city. The planet was destroyed but the city has survived as have many of my people."

The planet and city names did sound very familiar but I still wasn't quite sure if it was the planet I remembered so I asked for a little more information to hopefully clear up my confusion.

"Well, those do sound familiar and you do look like someone I remember but I have to ask, what is your full name?"

"Well, on my home world I was called Kara Zor-El, my mother is called Alura Zor-El, why do you ask?"

"Well I will need to check on something to be certain but I think we did know each other as children. I remember the incident you mentioned and the bully and it got me thinking that it might be possible that a ship my father built for me that was meant for when I came of age might still be out there somewhere and if it is, the technology he would likely have used to build it would be a great help against any being that threatens this world or its people."

"Do you know where this ship is?"

"Unfortunately not at the moment. I may be able to build a device that will help me find it, getting to it will likely be much more difficult."

"Do you know roughly where he was building it?"

"Actually yes, I believe I do, but it will most likely have moved since then. My father had a strange way of looking at things and was fond of testing people, making me find the ship to prove I am worthy of it would be exactly the sort of thing he would do."

"Well, if you need any help, just ask."

When we returned to the city and the building I appeared in I was shown to a room and told that I could stay there for as long as I needed to,and that any help they could give would be mine.

"Thank you, there are a few things I could use to build the device I will need."

"If you make a list of the parts you need, I'll see that it gets to someone that can help you."

"Well, I don't mean any offence but if the ship is what I thin k it might be, I need to do this myself. My father was known to be quite thorough when it came to his traps."

"Do you really think he could know how you found the ship?"

"I wouldn't put it past him to have some kind of machine to read my mind to find out if I had help or not."

Once the agent had left I turned to look around the room and decided that I might as well try and find a training room so I could see if any of my abilities would work differently in this reality, it had happened in several other realities before and if I was here to fight something, it would likely be very powerful and I would need every advantage I could get to survive the mission.

As I wandered through the base I came across a woman shooting a small weapon towards a target. She looked worried about something so as soon as she was reloading I walked over to her.

"Are you okay? It's just that you looked a little worried about something."

When she turned to face me, she became extremely defensive and looked a little annoyed at me.

"Have I done something to offend you?"

"No, but my sister told me about you, she was always very upset when she did and I have to make sure you don't upset her like that again."

"I'm sorry if this makes me seem like a complete idiot but who is your sister?"

It was at that point that Kara walked in behind me and rushed over to the agent and hugged her before turning briefly to look at me.

"Alex, what have you been saying to him?"

"Okay, that explains it, she's your sister?"

"Yes, when I arrived on earth, her family took me in and treated me like I was their own."

"Well, it seems I owe you my thanks for caring for my friend. I only regret I was unable to help while she was growing up, the emergence of your powers must have been difficult to deal with as a human teenager. With me experiencing something similar with my own abilities, I could have been of some help."

"But how could you have helped, you're even younger than her, aren't you?"

I turned back to face Alex and answered her question.

"Not exactly, you see my people don't age the same way as humans or even Kryptonians do. We age normally for the first ten years or so of our lives, then we physically grow rapidly to our physical prime, usually that takes about five years or so and then we age incredibly slowly for a very long time."

"Then how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Physically, I am somewhere around twenty-six, but in terms of years lived I am several centuries older than even the Martian I spoke to earlier. I know it has only been twenty years at most since we last saw each other but i have been travelling through many different realities since then and time moves differently In some of them."

A few hours later, most of which had been spent talking about our childhoods and our various experiences there was a loud bang and the building shook as if it had been struck by a giant hand.

Once the rumbling had stopped I instantly sensed a very familiar and unwelcome presence outside the city and without a word to anyone else changed back into the shadowhawk and flew straight there as fast as its wings could carry me.

As soon as I landed I saw the last thing I expected to see, sitting on a chair in front of me was a man who had supposedly been dead for over three hundred years after trying and failing to kill the leadership of my people.

"What the hell are you doing here? I let you live that day on the understanding that I would never see you again."

"I am not here to cause trouble, they captured me a few days ago and in exchange for my life I agreed to do a job for them. They want this reality sealed and travel here made impossible for our kind."

"So, they want to stop the 'overseers' from coming here, right?"

"Exactly, they have sent several of our kind through to other worlds that would be good targets for the overseers in order to protect those worlds."

I was a little confused when I heard that. Surely if the reality was sealed off then they couldn't create a portal here?

"The idea is that travel will only be possible to a few worlds in order to allow us to more easily deal with the threat they pose."

"I suppose I can see the logic in their decision but I cannot believe they would chose to risk all the lives on those other worlds on the chance that an overseer might appear there."

"With the exception of earth, they are all uninhabited worlds, for some reason, earth cannot be sealed, something to do with affecting the fabric of reality."

"So, the stories of earth being the nexus point for the multiverse are true then?"

"It would seem so. I was supposed to remain on this world as its protector but now I know that you are here, I would ask that you assist me with this task, since they are most likely to attack here first and two stand a better chance of survival than one."

"Very well but you will have to come with me first, the people that I am to be working with will have questions for you."

A few seconds later supergirl and the Martian dropped to the ground between me and the person I had just been speaking to.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

"Kara, wait! He's not here to harm anyone!"

When they turned to face me, I explained what I had been told.

"If they sent him here, then the threat is very real and we will need him if this world is to remain free and safe."

"You trust him?"

"On this? Yes. With my life? Not really, but then again, I don't trust many people."

"Well, if shadow trusts him, then so do I."

I looked over at Kara and saw that she really did mean what she had said.

"So, if that is why you are here, where will you station yourself?"

"I do not know exactly but I will not be in this city for long, it seems to me that this part of the world has many protectors already."

"Indeed it does, old friend."

"Then I will be on my way. There are many places on this world I wish to see while I can."

I turned to face the others.

"You won't be able to hold him against his will, you can't force me to do anything and he is even more powerful than I am."

Once he had left there was a ringing noise coming from the armour I was wearing and when I looked down I saw that a ship had been detected entering the atmosphere and was heading straight for me.

"Kara you might want to stand back, there's a ship heading this way and it's going to land right on top of you if you don't. From what I'm seeing on the scans, it could hurt or even kill you if it hit you."

Once she had moved behind me I brought up the strongest shield I could, just in case and made sure my weapons were ready.

When the ship landed I could see that it looked familiar but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't place it, at least not until the pilot jumped out, ran over and knocked me to the ground, all in the space of a few seconds.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? Why didn't you come back home?"

I pulled myself to my feet and brushed myself off before answering her.

"I don't know what happened for me to end up here but It was not anything I did."

"Then will you be coming back with me?"

"No, I will not. At least, not yet. I have had word that the overseers may attempt to attack this world and I am one of the few of our kind that has fought one and lived. They need me here more than you need me back home."

"I suppose so, is there a message you want me to give anyone back home?"

"Just tell them that I am alive and well, don't say anything about whether or not I will be returning once the danger has passed."

"Well, if the overseers are as dangerous as the stories say, you will need help, won't you?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt but who did you have in mind?"

"Well, I figured I would stay and there were a few friends of yours that were ready to leap into the vortex unshielded when they heard you had disappeared after your last mission."

"Did anyone actually jump in?"

"No, none of them were quite fast enough to get past the guards the council had placed to stop anyone doing something stupid like that."

"Well, while I am touched by the gesture, I would rather they get permission from the council to come here first. If they do that, and we do end up facing an overseer, then I would welcome their help."

With that she turned to look at Kara standing behind me.

"I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself earlier. My name is storm and shadow is my brother."

"Wow, he never mentioned a sister."

"There's a very good reason for that, I didn't know she existed until about a month ago. It seems that me and the rest of my family were separated when me and my twin were born. Among my people twins are almost unheard of, it does happen but very rarely and when it does the two are often much more powerful than normal for the species and with the overseers around, we were separated so that our powers would never fall into the overseers hands."

A few minutes later storm headed back to her ship and left, heading through a portal a few moments later.

"So, that was your sister? She seems quite..."

"Serious? She is that, but given what little I have learnt of her life, she's had to be."

"What do you mean?"

"That's not my story to tell, maybe she will tell you herself one day but for now, I would just leave it alone."

"So, alex told me she was talking to you earlier."

"You could say that, it's the first time I've been warned by family of someone i'm not actually involved with but I can see what she was trying to say."

"What exactly did she say?"

I told her everything that Alex and I had said earlier and made her promise that she wouldn't say anything to her sister about it until I had spoken to her first.

When we returned to the city I went straight over to Alex to tell her about what had happened as well as the fact that Kara knew what we had spoken about earlier and that she wanted to talk to Alex about it.

"Did she seem angry?"

"No, a little annoyed maybe, but I doubt she would be angry about it if it was explained to her properly."

"Well, perhaps you're right, I can't help worrying about her, with everything she's been through in the last few years."

A few minutes later Kara walked in and seemed annoyed and was staring at her sister.

"Kara, your sister was just looking out for you, I know it can seem annoying and controlling but she's just trying to make sure you're happy. You can't fault her for that."

with that I left and started building the tracking device I needed to find the ship I believed had been left by my father and had almost finished when I heard Kara walked in and sat down opposite me.

"So, I spoke to Alex, she seems to think you might have feelings for me."

"Well, I think it's a little early to be able to say one way or the other about that, but I do think you are a good friend."

A few minutes later I finished the device and activated it, hoping that I had finished the job properly and would actually be able to find the ship.

"Is it working?"

"Maybe, I'll need to get to higher ground to clear up the signal and hopefully I'll be able to follow it."

"Just one question, if you don't already have a ship, how can you get to the ship in the first place?"

I took a deep breath before standing up and walking over to a clear area before turning back to Kara.

"The form I am about to take can survive in a vacuum for a time and will last long enough for me to reach the ship. Even if it doesn't, I can get to a nearby planet and rest before continuing on to the ship."

As soon as there was enough space around me, I shifted into the form I had told Kara about albeit a slightly smaller version.

"I'll be heading out soon, but there's something I need you to have before I go."

I handed her a small communicator.

"This will reach me wherever I am, use it if you need my help, but only in an emergency and an overseer shows up. Use it and I will come for you."

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

"So do I Kara, so do I."

Once I had told Alex what I was doing and where I was going I headed to the highest point around and started the tracker.

It was dark before I actually got a signal and a possible heading so I decided to head out as soon as possible.

I don't know how long I was travelling before the device started beeping again, seemingly pointing me towards a small planet, when I reached the planet the device seemed to be leading me towards a structure hanging in the space beyond the planets three moons so I headed in for a closer look.

As I reached the moon I realised that I was heading for a hangar and as soon as I arrived I started searching for an access panel and finally found a way inside and saw a wreckage, the ship had been destroyed. Once I saw that I started going through the pieces that were left trying to find anything usable and a few hours later I had found several specimen pods that I discovered contained a variation of something my father had called the black mercy and from the few computer records I could find, my father had genetically altered the samples to be even more powerful and hoped that they could be used against the overseers. I was reluctant to take them but I knew they would be useful, and I was not going to take the risk of someone else finding them. I knew Kara and Alex would not forgive me easily for bringing them back to earth with me but I honestly believed it was worth the risk since I genuinely believed I could keep them contained until I found a way to replicate what they could do without releasing them on the overseers.

As soon as I had placed the specimen cases into a storage unit and left the hangar the communicator went off.

"Shadow? Is that you?"

"It is, who is this?"

"It's Alex, we need you back here right now, Kara's gone missing, we think she was kidnapped!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- revelations

last time

"_shadow? Is that you?"_

"_it is, who is this?"_

"_it's Alex, we need you back here right now, Kara's gone missing, we think she was kidnapped!"_

_/thoughts/_

As soon as I heard that I shifted faster than I ever had before, picked up the storage unit and headed straight for earth, realising that if she had been kidnapped, then someone or something very powerful was behind it and that they would need all the help they could get.

When I entered earths atmosphere I started scanning the planet for any Kryptonian life-signs, hoping that if I did find one, it would be Kara and if it wasn't, that they would be friendly and willing to help me find her.

When I found one I let Alex and the DEO know and headed for a city that I found out was known as metropolis and when I landed I found myself outside a building that seemed to be the office for a newspaper known as the Daily Planet.

When I went inside I realised who the life-sign belonged to and asked where I would be able to find a man called Clark Kent.

"And why do you want to see me?"

I turned to see the very person I was looking for standing behind me.

"You are Clark Kent?"

"I am, what do you want with me?"

"It is a family matter, perhaps best discussed in private." I lowered my voice before continuing.

"Kal-El."

I saw the look on his face when he heard that name and I knew he would at least listen to what I had to say.

"Come with me."

I followed him to a small office and had just entered the room when he span around, locked the door and thrown me into the wall.

"Kal-El, I am not here to fight you! I am here because Kara needs your help!"

"What did you say? What's happened to Kara?"

"I don't know, all I know is that Alex thinks she's been abducted and the longer we spend arguing about this, the less time she has."

"Then we'd better get started. What do you know?"

"Only what I've told you, I've just returned from an off-world mission and was hoping you would have some idea of what had happened. If i had been here, I may have been able to stop them. Now I am back I WILL bring her back to her family, even if I have to kill to do so."

"Well, I guess I can't question your commitment to her safety, but I have to ask, why are you doing this?"

"Did you ever talk to Kara about her childhood before she came to earth?"

"Yes, many times, why?"

"Did you ever hear about a friend called shadow? One that had some rather unusual abilities?"

"Yes, now that you mention it, the name does seem familiar."

"Did you ever meet him?"

"No, krypton died before I had a chance to."

"Well, now you have met him. Does that answer your question?"

"Indeed, it is good to finally meet you. Where are we going to start looking?"

"Firstly, we need to get back to the DEO, I need to find out everything they know about what happened since it may give us some idea of what had happened to Kara."

"Agreed, do you need help getting there?"

"That will not be necessary, with my abilities, I could probably beat you there."

"I doubt that."

When he said that I shifted into the shadowhawk after letting Alex know I was on the way and I was bringing help with me.

When I arrived back at the DEO I looked around and saw that Superman was a minute or so behind me so I took Alex to one side and explained about the modified black mercy plants I had found.

"Are you sure they are secure? We have had to deal with one of those that had attached itself to Kara before."

"Yes, she did tell me about that, these are different, if anything, they are even more dangerous but for the moment, they are in stasis ans even if the containers were opened, they would lie dormant until they encounter something my father called 'the blood of the eternal fire', I have been wondering about that since I found them but have no idea what he meant by that."

"Make sure they stay secure, if anyone is affected by them, I want them all destroyed."

"Don't worry, I happen to agree with you completely on that, the only reason I have kept them this long is that my father seemed to think they could be used against the overseers, from what little I have learnt from the files, he could be right, though the cost may be too high."

A few seconds later I turned to see superman land in the building and head straight over to Alex.

"What do we know?"

"Almost nothing, she was on a mission and she just disappeared, all that was at the location was the communicator I used to get shadow back here."

"That's worrying, that communicator should have been impossible to remove from her and if someone managed it, they must have been incredibly powerful, either that or she went willingly. I'm not sure that's a better outcome though, since we don't know who it is, they may have been controlling her somehow and with the power she has, she could be the most dangerous weapon they could have against us."

I could see that everyone was worried and upset about that but I was quick to reassure them.

"Do not worry, I will bring her back, alive and well."

I wondered how I was going to find her until I realised that the scan for Kryptonian energy had picked up several other readings and I was willing to bet that one of them was Kara.

As soon as I had the readings displayed on the map of the city we agreed to split up and hopefully at least one of us would find something useful, even if we didn't find Kara.

As I was leaving I realised that the mercy would be useful and maybe even be enough to break whatever hold they had over Kara so I swapped one of the stasis pods for a replica and headed out to the energy source I was looking into.

When I reached the co-ordinates I was given I found myself in the middle of an apparently abandoned factory complex and was instantly on alert, forcing a partial change to improve my senses so that I would hopefully have some warning of any attack.

As I explored the factory I found nothing that would indicate that anyone had been there for years, at least not until I headed down to the basement levels when I started to detect an energy field up ahead that seemed to be protecting a room at the end of the corridor I was in so I started scanning the area to try and find out what was in the room ahead of me. The scanner took a while but eventually I got a partial result that showed me there was a Kryptonian life sign on the other side of the door so I shifted into a form that I hoped would be able to deal with a brainwashed and very angry Kara. As I reached the edge of the energy field the door started to open and revealed the on e thing I had hoped I would never have to face.

"Kara, you don't want to do this. Whatever they have told you, it's not true. Remember who you are, remember everyone who loves you."

I could see that my words were having an effect on her, just nowhere near what I wanted them to so I stood back, and prepared to release the modified mercy plant on her.

"Kara, I will only give you one warning, if you attack me, I will release the mercy and we will both die here."

My warning had no effect so I sent Alex a message, warning her of what I was about to do and to get Superman and the Martian to my location as soon as she could.

"I'm sorry, I have to use the mercy, there is no choice,. It is either that or I will be forced to kill Kara and that is something I will never do willingly."

As soon as she answered and said that she understood I shut off the comm link, released the mercy and passed out as we were both drawn into whatever passed for the new Kara's dream.

When I woke up I was lying in a room that I never thought I would see again, I pulled myself to my feet and walked over to the window to see if my suspicions were right and when I saw what was outside I almost passed out again. Outside the window was what appeared to be krypton but before I could scan anything to confirm what I was seeing, there was a chime from the door on the other side of the room.

Since I didn't know what was waiting for me on the other side of the door I picked a sword off the wall and told whoever it was to come in once I had moved to stand next to the door.

When they walked in I relaxed slightly as I saw Alex standing in front of me.

"Thank god, you're finally awake, she would have killed you if you were late today."

"Listen, this may seem like a really strange question but who would have killed me and what would I have been late for?"

"Are you okay, you really don't remember what today is? You must have had more to drink last night than we realised."

"Humour me please, I have only just woken up, you know sometimes it takes a while for the mind to catch up to the rest of me in the morning."

"Okay but I think you should see the healer if you really have trouble like this. It's your wedding day and you're getting married to Kara."

"_so, that's what the mercy shows Kara, or is this my dream?_"

once she had left I knew that I had to find Kara and try and convince her that none of this was real, no matter how much either of us wanted it to be.

As I wandered through the building I noticed everybody was trying to keep me from seeing Kara but with everyone trying to keep me away from her, it was easy to tell where she was so I headed back to my room and shifted into a form that could remain mostly hidden while I flew outside and over to her window, hoping she had kept it open and that no-one would notice me leaving my room to go and see her.

A few seconds later I was hovering outside her window, waiting for her to let me in and hoping that she would believe and understand when I told her what I had done.

"Shadow, what are you doing here? I thought we had agreed not to see each other until the ceremony."

"I know, but there is something we need to talk about and you're going to think I'm going mad when I say this, but I don't think anything around us is real. It is all the result of being attacked by a genetically altered form of the black mercy, you were under the influence of something, I don't know what, but the only way to break it was to release the mercy."

"If you say It was the only way, then I guess I can't really blame you for that. Just one question though, whose dream is this?"

"I honestly don't know, I thought you would have some idea from what people have been talking to you about."

"I haven't actually been awake for very long so I haven't actually spoken to anyone yet."

"Well, I spoke to the dream Alex earlier, she was about to start yelling at me for being late and saying that you would kill me if I was late for the wedding."

"Why would one of our dreams be Alex getting married?"

I almost laughed when I heard her say that but since time was of the essence I simply told her exactly what the dream Alex had told me.

"So, if this is an altered form of the black mercy, how exactly was it altered?"

"Well, the files said that it doesn't pull the victims dream up, but that was all I could get from the files, I was lucky to even get that much, there was that much damage."

"Then how do we get out of here?"

"Well, I honestly don't know, but hopefully your cousin and the Martian should be with us as well as an old friend of mine that seems to always turn up when they're needed most so hopefully they will again."

"Here's hoping. Maybe we should just go along with this for now, see what happens."

"That would seem to be our best option at the moment, I'd better get back to my room before someone comes looking for me or you, if Alex found me in here, she'd kill me and that does scare me almost as much as the thought of not being able to get out of here."

"Just one question, what happens if we get hurt or killed here?"

"I really have no idea, but I would try to avoid it, I don't even know if your powers would work here. I would think not though."

Once I had left I headed straight back to the room and shifted back into my real form just before there was a knock at the door and Alex walked in.

"Shadow, what the hell is going on here?"

"What do you mean? I have no idea what you're talking about."

a few seconds later there was another knock at the door and superman and the Martian walked in.

"Okay, now I'm worried, what's happening?"

"Relax, we're not part of this dream, we're the real thing. J'onn managed to project us into Kara's mind and since you are connected, we were able to speak to you as well."

"Well, I spoke to Kara and she seems to be back to normal, at least in here so the mercy did what was intended, the only problem is how do we get out, my fathers files said that the variation he had created doesn't focus on the victims hearts desire, but I couldn't get any more information from them than that."

"Well, we could always try to kill the mercy from outside, but that could easily kill the two of you as well."

"That would be a very bad idea, especially with what my father may or may not have done to it. There's no telling what we'll have to do to get out of here, use killing it as a last resort. This may be as simple as needing to find a representation of the mercy within the dream and killing that, the only problem is that it could look like anyone or anything."

as they were leaving, Alex stopped and turned back to face me.

"I know I gave you a hard time when you first got here but if this is what the two of you want, I will not say anything against it. I just want her to be safe and happy."

"I honestly don't know what will happen in the future, but I promise you now, that I will always be there if she needs me and no harm will come to her while I still draw breath."

"Then I believe that I can trust you to find the two of you a way to get out of here safely."

as soon as they had left the 'dream' versions of Alex and the others walked in.

"Well, he hasn't run off yet, that must be a good sign."

I laughed along with them for a moment before having to fight off several mental attacks from the projections in front of me and I knew that they suspected something was wrong, whether or not they realised that I knew everything around me was fake or not is something I needed to find out.

"Next time you want to read my mind, at least do me the courtesy of asking me first, you should know that a trained mind is a dangerous place for a telepath to be."

"My apologies, I had heard that a shape-shifter was sighted outside and was merely trying to make sure you are who you appear to be."

"And if you had said beforehand why you were doing it you were concerned in case the shape-shifter was dangerous and attacked you, hence the reason for the others to be here?"

"Exactly. now, we need to find the shape-shifter before they hurt anyone."

"They won't, I was the shape-shifter that was seen outside, I felt a little nervous about today and flying around for a while usually helps me to calm down."

Once they had left I started to wonder what Kara and I would have to do to get out of this dream

world and whether or not my friend would be aware of what had happened.

A few minutes later I heard a terminal across the room telling me someone was trying to contact me so I headed over and turned the screen on.

When I saw who was calling me I was shocked at first but then extremely relieved.

"You heard about what was happening then?"

"Yes,i assume you used the modified mercy?"

"Yes,at the time, I could see no other way to break the controlling influence's hold on Kara."

"Well,I have some good news for you,i can get you out of the dream relatively easily and safely, the only drawback however, is that it will take time to prepare myself."

"So, we should just play along with this for now?"

"That may be your only option at this point, I assume they are preparing to kill the mercy as a last resort?"

"Indeed, though I was hoping they would find an alternative option as I don't think they would be able to bring either of us back."

"I had better get started then, if all goes well, you should be out of here before the end of the dream day."

"If not, I'm going hunting for the projection of the mercy and tearing it apart here if I have to."

"Well, there is always that option, but that would be very dangerous."

A few seconds later the terminal switched off and I realised I would need to start getting ready soon so I dressed in the clothes that had been left for me, also picking up a sword and using a small amount of power to hide it from view and was about to leave when the dream versions of J'onn and Alex walked in and told me it was time to head for the temple.

"It is time for you to go, she will be waiting there for you if you take much longer and she will not be happy about that."

"Okay, I had just finished getting ready anyway, lead the way."

as we travelled through the city I was looking everywhere for any sign of anything unusual that might show me where the mercy was hidden but all I could see was people going about their normal lives, nothing seemed unusual, at least nothing until we reached the temple and I saw the symbol of a 'deity' I had thought had long since been destroyed and a wave of fear spread through me when I remembered what had happened last time I had encountered that symbol.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- escaping the mercy

_before I continue with the story I would like to apologise for the delay in posting the new chapter. My laptop suddenly failed, taking all of the work done on chapter 4 as well as several other story ideas I was working on and I have had to rewrite this piece from memory so almost none of it is how I originally planned it but hopefully you still enjoy it._

When I saw the symbol on the temple walls I only just managed to keep from reacting too badly but I must have shown some sign of recognising the symbol since the dream version of the Martian turned to me and asked me what was wrong.

"It's nothing, I just thought I saw someone familiar, someone that I thought had died years ago and it worried me for a moment."

"Are they someone we need to be concerned about?"

"No, if they are really here, none of you would be able to stop him if he wanted to cause trouble."

when I entered the temple I noticed more than a few people that I thought had died years earlier so I was on guard pretty much right away.

As I neared the centre of the temple I began to hear music and turned towards the entrance to see what was probably the most beautiful person I had ever seen and when Kara reached me I think I actually forgot how to breathe for a moment.

"Shadow, any luck finding a way out of here yet?"

"No, but I did hear from that friend I mentioned, she seems to think she has a way to get us out of here by the end of the day, if it works, we will need to act quickly to destroy the mercy so it can't trap us again."

"What do you mean? Once you escape a mercy, the mercy dies soon after."

"Not these ones, apparently, my father was trying to overcome that weakness so that they could be used to safely contain those individuals that were too powerful for normal prisons to hold so he made them capable of living for a short time after the illusion is broken so they could re-trap the victim."

"And you know how to kill the modified mercy?"

"Well, the heat of a dragon's fire seems to work on most things, I figure It will at least weaken it long enough for me to trap it in the stasis pod again."

"Then I assume the only choice is to play along for the moment and hope there's nothing waiting to kill us here?"

"Pretty much, my friend said that she believes there will be a representation of the mercy here that may need to be destroyed for us to escape but couldn't say where it would likely be or even what it would look like."

"Well, whatever it would be, I don't think I'll be much help, I don't seem to have any of my abilities here."

"I'm not surprised, the mercy likely sees your powers as a threat so it is stopping you from being able to use them. My own abilities seem to be unaffected for the moment, possibly because of an accident when I was younger that means my abilities don't work in the same way as any other member of my race so the mercy seems to be unable to block them."

"Well, I hope we don't need them, but at least one of us can still fight if something goes wrong."

during the ceremony I was only paying a little attention to Kara and the priest most of my focus was on finding a way out of the dream and wondering if the ceremony would still affect us in the real world.

When I mentioned this to Kara later she looked worried and confused so I took her to one side as the guests were leaving the temple and attempted to explain to her what I meant by that.

"So, if the ceremony is seen to be real, regardless of the fact that it is essentially a dream, we would be considered married by your people?"

"Yes, the fact that this is an illusion may work in our favour, but if not, I need to prepare you for what may happen to you as a result of this."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's not exactly clear what will actually happen, this has never been done with a Kryptonian before so I'll just go through the most common changes and some of the others that could affect you but you shouldn't have to worry about them for a few weeks at least and I can help you cope with most of it but there are a few things i'm not really sure whether or not they will happen but we should go over them as well just in case."

A few minutes later the guests had left and we were alone for the first time since entering the dream, well first time without having to sneak around anyway.

"I think we need to get working on finding the mercy."

a few moments later I decided to see if one of my abilities in particular still worked as with Kara not having her powers we would need a little extra help.

After looking around for a few moments I pointed towards a few items and asked her to bring them over while I prepared a few things.

"What do you need this stuff for?"

"Well, without your powers you are vulnerable to any attacks while you are in this dream so I am hoping this will protect you against most likely attacks as well as allowing you a way to fight back."

"When you say fight back, what do you mean?"

"Hopefully, when I am finished with the armour, you will still have your speed and strength, heat and x-ray vision will be possible but cannot be guaranteed to work."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Only that you may well end up having to fight against the images of your family to get out of here as well as my own, I would advise you to leave my family for me to deal with as even the best armour could make here wouldn't help you much with them."

"Then we need to get going if we're going to find the mercy."

A few moments later we had left the temple to be met by a group of very angry people that were in the process of drawing weapons and aiming at us.

"Kara, I guess we'll see how the armour works sooner rather than later."

"Are they your family?"

"Just the mercy's version of them. If you want to fight, I will not stop you, but I would recommend you get inside and stay there until I come back for you."

As soon as she left I drew in as much energy as I could safely handle and threw it straight into the middle of the images of my family, vaporising three of them and injuring most of what was left before drawing my swords and calmly walking through the smoking remains of the dead to fight what looked like my family.

A few moments later I found myself blasted back into the side of the temple by a massively powerful energy blast that came from somewhere behind the enemy and when my vision finally cleared I saw a creature that could only have been the image of the mercy slowly walking towards me, only to be stopped when something slammed into it, almost faster than I could see, sending it flying back into the building on the other side of the street.

When I could finally see clearly through the dust that had been thrown up when the creature was hit, I saw Kara standing in between me and the creature, fists clenched and ready to fight.

As I pulled myself from the hole in the wall I fired an energy blast of my own, not at the creature, but at the ground in front of it, knocking it back and giving me time to get to Kara.

"I thought I told you to wait inside! That creature could kill you, you don't have your powers here."

"I know but you were hurt and I didn't want that thing to get near you."

"I appreciate the gesture but how about we deal with that thing and then we focus on getting out of here?"

A few moments later I was back on my feet, staring across the street at the creature lying there and was about to throw another energy blast at it, to make sure it wasn't going to get up when the creature changed before my eyes, turning into a beast I had hoped I would never see again.

As the creature slowly pulled itself to its feet it towered over Kara and I as well as what was left of the building it had been thrown through only a few minutes earlier. By the time it was standing it looked like it was at least twenty feet tall and stronger than ever.

"Well Kara, any ideas?"

She looked at me for a moment.

"..., maybe run?"

"If this was the real world I would agree with you, but I don't think that will help us much here."

"Then how about we just start hitting it until it falls down and we get out of here?"

"Sounds like fun, you want to go first?"

"No, I already hit it pretty hard, I want to see what you can do when you let loose and use all your power."

"If you're sure, you may want to stand back, the explosion will be intense."

A few moments later, once she was at a safe distance, I concentrated on a form I had not used since I first encountered an overseer and I hoped, one that would allow me to defeat the mercy before it killed me.

As I stood in front of the creature, waiting for it to charge, there was a flash of light and everything went black before I opened my eyes to find myself back in the factory I had found Kara in earlier and when I looked round me I saw Kara lying on the floor with Clark and the Martian standing over her, probably in case she was still under the control of whoever had caught her In the first place.

"Stand aside, If she is still being controlled, I will need to move quickly before whatever they used on her regains its hold on her mind."

As soon as they were clear I thought back to one of the things I had learned on one of the many earths I had visited over the years and released a pulse of energy directly into karas body, hopefully purging her mind and allowing her own personality to reassert itself.

The next few minutes felt more like hours but everyone there let out a sigh of relief when she began to stir and tried to sit up and looked round at everyone.

"Where am I and why do you all look like someone just died?"

"Well, you very nearly did die."

When she turned to face me and asked what i was talking about I explained everything that had happened to her since I had left, though I didn't tell her exactly what the mercy had shown us, figuring she might not want everyone hearing that quite yet.

"So, your father was messing around with a black mercy?"

"It would seem so,thankfully we were able to get out of the illusion eventually."

"True but I think we need to talk later about exactly what it showed us."

"Agreed, but not here."

A few minutes later she felt well enough to stand so the Martian and Alex took her back to the DEO while I asked Clark to help me search the building.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Hopefully anything that will tell us who brainwashed kara and how they did it. If not, then any equipment that looks advanced or alien as well as any supplies that you think could be useful or dangerous to leave just lying around."

Once Clark had headed deeper into the facility to see what equipment was lying around I headed straight over to a computer terminal I noticed that still seemed to have power and tried to gain access to any files that I could find on who actually built the base and by the time I had managed to actually get into any of the files Clark had returned with a large pile of equipment in his arms which he slowly put on the floor in the corner of the room before joining me at the computer.

"Anything useful?"

"Not yet, whoever was running this place certainly knew their way around security programs, even Kryptonian computers were easier to hack than this."

"When did you hack Kryptonian computers?"

"Well, it was actually done entirely accidentally, I had no idea that I had managed to access council records until they showed up at the door and told me what had happened."

"Just out of curiosity, what records did you see?"

"Well, most of it was just records of old meetings,nothing very interesting, but there were references to something called the ,GimSom, , said it translated to the Flame-bird, what little I could translate seemed to indicate it was what would be called a weapon of mass destruction, a last resort in the event of a catastrophic attack on krypton or its people."

"Did it say anything else? I came across a file with a similar name at the fortress but couldn't access any of the contents."

"Well it seemed to refer to something that could be a living weapon but it wasn't very clear what it actually looked like. From what I have learned from other sources and a few friends of mine that specialize in acquiring 'certain kinds of information', the weapon was in the form of a child when Krypton was destroyed and no-one seems to know where it went, no planet I have visited since seems to know anything more than that but there was a slaver a few years ago that was always good for information that seemed to know something but he always got really nervous whenever I mentioned the weapon."

"Well, maybe whatever ship it was on was destroyed when the planet exploded."

"Maybe. Anyway, I think I will need some help with the security on these computers, there is a friend of mine on a world I helped out a few months before I came here that was a genius with computers and some of the code here looks like something he tried to teach me about once."

I thought that I would be better off speaking to the DEO about this before bringing anyone from another reality through so I gathered up all of the computer hardware and equipment I could carry while Clark gathered the rest and we headed back to the DEO to try and work out exactly what we had found.

When we landed I handed the equipment over and headed off in search of Kara needing to make sure he was recovering from the mercy.

When I finally found her, the Martian and her sister were I with her along with another human woman that seemed to be the foster mother and once I entered the room she looked over at me and smiled, causing the others to turn and tell me to come in.

"Shadow! Did you find anything?"

"Not much of any use I'm afraid, the computers were protected by security I couldn't break so I took all the equipment I could carry and brought it here for study."

I could see that Kara was watching me very carefully and when she asked the others to leave for a moment I was a little worried.

"There's something I need to speak to shadow about. It's a little personal so would you give us a few

minutes please?"

Once they had left she sat up and looked over at me.

"Okay, now tell me what you really found."

I took a deep breath before telling her about my conversation with Clark and asking her if she had ever heard of the flamebird.

"What exactly do you know about that? I thought they had scrapped that project."

"Apparently not, all I know is that at least one was created and it may have survived the destruction of Krypton. If this is true, it may be a very useful ally against the overseers. At the very least, we need to stop them from finding it."

"What is this weapon actually capable of?"

"Not really sure, I didn't see the whole file, all I know is what I have told you."

"Well the name does sound familiar but I can't tell you much more, there may be someone that can though."

"Well, I think we need to be careful who we tell about this, but if you think they can help then we should see what they can tell us."

"Don't worry about that, they physically can't tell anyone if I don't want them to."


End file.
